It’s amazing what a little spin can do. Yes, there is a very real study and yes, it reveals that women tend more towards sympathy but it’s not because they’re Nazi sympathizers. It’s because they’re sympathetic in general.

U.S., Canadian, and German scientists conducting a twenty question study on quite a few moral questions posited this one to their subjects: If you had a time machine would you go back and kill Hitler?

Men, far more than women, answered in the affirmative while the women in the study sample of 6,100 were more likely to wrestle with the morality of the problem which has commonly been described as essentially killing an innocent before they commit a crime or atrocity. Women, it seems, have a different grasp of the morality of such an act while most men act in a more utilitarian manner.

The study examined two philosophical principles that relate to ethics, deontology and utilitarianism. According to the former, the morality of an action depends on its consistency with a moral norm. Utilitarianism, meanwhile, holds the morality of an action maximizes utility – in other words, that it is best for the greatest number of people.

What does this mean? Well, in terms of this study it means that women generally have a more fixed morality while, for men, morality is fluid and changes with what is best for the most people regardless of whether it crosses other moral boundaries.